I don't often comment on each week's machinima roundup but I'm struck this week on the outright quality of each of the pieces below. In the more than 2 years (140 weeks and counting), we've been featuring machinima each weekend, there's always something funny, inspirational or just plain wacky to watch. Over that time, like you'd expect with any artform, it's continued to … [Read more...] about Weekend Whimsy
The Archive
Merged realities – events and issues for virtual worlds
1. Car manufacturer Ford has started using a virtual human to improve the ergonomics of its manufacturing plants. 2. In a month's time, Second Life's 7th Birthday celebrations kick off. 3. I hadn't stumbled across the world of Tinier Me until received a press release from their PR company announcing the debut of "popular Japanese anime character, Gloomy Bear". Now you … [Read more...] about Merged realities – events and issues for virtual worlds
Body image study: last chance for participation
Back in January we promoted a study being undertaken by Doctorate student Jon-Paul Cacioli on body image in virtual worlds (the study participants need to be aged 18 or over and be male). Click here for the survey link The response over recent months has been good be Jon-Paul needs a few more people to take part in the survey: We have introduced an amazon gift voucher of $100 … [Read more...] about Body image study: last chance for participation
Immersion and the Conceptual Hump
I'm obviously biased in my assessment of Tateru Nino: she is a contributing writer for this publication and I'm already convinced she's one of the world's best virtual worlds observers. Articles like this one are why I believe that. It's a superb piece on immersion and how that can be hard to achieve until those first few frustrating hours of getting to know a virtual … [Read more...] about Immersion and the Conceptual Hump
The Watch – virtual worlds in the news
1. Edmonton Journal (Canada) - City leads Second Life in virtual world. "Here's a surefire way for Daryl Katz to get the arena he wants. Join Second Life. Edmontonians, including Katz, may soon be able to revisualize the city the way they see fit when Edmonton goes virtual later this summer in Second Life. In the 3-D virtual world of Second Life, users create avatars that … [Read more...] about The Watch – virtual worlds in the news